Piano.



C. C. GHICKERING.

PIANO.

APPLIUATION FILED NOV. 23, 190B. 1,034,082, Patented July 30, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

c. 0. GHI GKERING.

PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23, 1908.

1,034,082. Patented July 30, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2. i g. r?-

C Mi ls F6? 6. Czblaftn? v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLIFFORD C. CHICKEBING, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PIANO.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLIFFORD C. CHICK- ERING, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pianos; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

invention relates to upright pianos, and is designed to provide certain improvements in the construction and in the mount ing of the sounding boards and string plates thereof, as will be hereinafter more definitely pointed out and claimed reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which I Figure l is a face view of my improved strin plate shown rigidly attached to the soun ing board. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the piano back showing the vertical posts of the frame in dotted lines, and showing the sounding board and its rim rigidly attached thereto. 3 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 38, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a similar view taken on the line 4. i, Fig. 1.

In the said drawings: A, indicates the sounding board having the usual wooden diagonal ribs a, rigidly secured on the back by gluing, screwing, or otherwise, said sounding board being fitted in the piano frame or case as is usual. Rigidly secured on the back of the sounding board is a rim B. This, as shown, is made up of thin strips of wood glued together and affords a continuous band extending from the upper treble corner of the sounding board laterally and curving downwardly along the opposite side of the piano and curving inwardly along the bottom of the piano frame, thence obliquely upward in a compound curve, and to near the starting point and adjacent the end of the piano and thence up to the starting point where the ends of said rim are Serial No. 463,939.

rigidly secured together in any suit-able manner. The general form of that portion of the sounding board defined by the rim is that of the sounding board of a grand piano and as shown, said rim is beveled under on the inner side adjacent the sounding board and engages over the beveled ends a, of said diagonal ribs a. On the opposite side of the sounding board is the string plate C, which is secured in place by means of screws 0, which extend through posts 00 and are threaded into the outer frame posts D of the piano. As shown, the posts 0, fit loosely to the screws and project outwardly to space the string plate the desired distance from the sounding board,

The iron string plate is constructed as is usual with the string plate for grand pianos so far as is practicable in this adaptationin fact, in all particulars, so far as possible, conditions in a grand piano are duplicated.

Of course, details of the construction may be varied, I therefore do not purpose limiting myself otherwise than necessitated by the prior art.

I claim as my invention:

1. An upright piano, comprising a sounding board, ribs secured thereto, and a rim comprising a laminated band disposed on one face of said sounding board and having all of its corners rounded except where its ends are brought together, said rim having an under beveled face, and said ribs having beveled ends engaging said beveled face of said rim.

2. An upright piano, comprising a sounding board, a rim on said sounding board having a beveled face, and ribs having beveled ends engaging beneath the beveled face of said rim,

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CLIFFORD C. CHICKERING.

Witnesses:

WALTER E. Fox, K. E. HANNAH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

